E-Paper
State higher education council meet held in Chandigarh
To maintain quality of education, the assessment and accreditation status of higher education institutions (HEI) of Chandigarh was discussed
The 22nd meeting of state higher education council, Chandigarh, was held under the chairmanship of professor Renu Vig, vice-chancellor, Panjab University, on Thursday at Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) Directorate, Sector 42.
The agenda of the meeting was presented by professor Lakhvir Singh, additional state project director (ASPD), RUSA, Chandigarh. A total of 25 items were deliberated in the detail. The details pertaining to online admission for the session 2024-25 were apprised by Singh. The entire admission process, including joint prospectus, filling of admission form, display of merit list, and fee deposition, was online. As many as 42,751 students were admitted to UG and PG programmes through the process.
The council reviewed the financial progress made under the grant received from the Union ministry of education under RUSA 1.0 and 2.0. The earned interest amounting to ₹ 2.32 crore up to August 8 was remitted to the ministry. Singh apprised the house about the proposal submitted to the ministry of education amounting to ₹ 29.09 crore for the release of grant under RUSA/PM-USHA.
The house was also apprised that the ministry has marked an annual budget of ₹ 32.45 crore for Chandigarh under RUSA/ PM-USHA for the financial year 2024-25. A grant of ₹ 5 crore has been approved for GGDSD College, Sector 32, under PM-USHA by the ministry of education. To maintain quality of education, the assessment and accreditation status of higher education institutions (HEI) of Chandigarh was also discussed. At present, 13 institutions (including Panjab University) of Chandigarh have a live NAAC grade and 5 institutions have got rankings under NIRF-2024. The house also discussed other issues, such as providing high speed internet connectivity to all HEIs under the National Knowledge Network Scheme through the National Informatics Centre (NIC) Chandigarh, starting institutional innovative council/ incubation centres/ start-ups in government institutions and Government College in Manimajra, and establishing centralised training and placement cell in State Project Directorate, Sector 42.
It was also informed to the house that the recruitment rules of 417 posts of assistant professor and 32 posts of librarians have been approved by the ministry. Moreover, to overcome faculty crunch in government colleges, 27 retired teachers of various subjects have re-joined their services as per court orders and 19 faculty members from Haryana will be joining shortly on deputation.
RUSA is a centrally sponsored programme, launched in 2013, which aims to work with over 300 state universities and its affiliated colleges to provide strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions. The central funding (in the ratio of 60:40 for general category states, 90:10 for special category states and 100% for union territories) is based on norms and is outcome dependent.
